Asking better questions
The one thing that will make a
session on questioning worthwhile for
me personally is…
Asking better questions
Map of the session
• Check in: introductions/aims and expectations, scene
setting (paired/group activity)
• Issues with questioning (group activity/discussion)
• Asking better questions
(video/input/discussion/practical activity)
• Physical challenge (paired activity)
• Asking questions better (walkabout
activity/video/discussion)
• Check out (evaluation)
What are we talking about?
• Asking better questions that
raise the challenge and require
students to think
and
• Asking questions better to give
students more support to help
them to think and to reveal their
understanding
Asking better questions
Encouraging more interaction in the classroom
“The most successful
teachers all engage in
above average levels of
interaction with the
students. This appears to
be an important
determinant of student
progress.”
Maurice Galton and Brian Simon, ‘Progress and
performance in the Primary Classroom’
Learning depends on conversations
“You don’t know what you know until you say
it.”
James aged 9
“Thought is closely related to language:
talking is the prime vehicle for human
thinking and learning. Not all thinking
depends on words: conversations can be
internal, but are particularly effective carried
out in pairs or groups where different ways of
interpreting evidence can be explored to
mutual benefit.”
Lev Vygotsky ‘Thought and Language’ 1962
The five principles of AfL
•
You need to start from where your learners are: students will need to
reconstruct or reconsider their existing knowledge, ideas and strategies, not
just add to what they already know, understand or can do.
•
Students must understand the learning intention, which includes what
strategies they need to use to be successful as well as what constitutes a
good quality end product.
•
Students need to be active in the process: your job is to work with them so
that the learning is done by them, you cannot do the learning for them or to
them.
•
Students need to be able to talk about their ideas in the whole class, in
pairs or in groups.
•
Feedback must focus on how students can improve not simply on how
well they have done in relation to a target.
(adapted from Mathematics Inside the Black Box)
Good questions can…
•
reinforce previous learning
•
assess knowledge
•
develop thinking skills
•
improve reasoning skills
•
promote discussion
•
demand explanation
•
encourage creative thinking
•
reveal understanding or misconceptions
•
encourage debate
•
give students confidence to express their opinions
•
encourage problem solving
•
reinforce and revisit learning intentions
•
help identify success criteria
Asking better questions
Issues with questioning
• What difficulties can there
be for teachers in asking
questions in the
classroom?
• What can make it difficult
for students to answer
questions in class?
Difficulties for teachers in asking questions
• Creating a climate for quality
questioning
• When no-one answers
• You may get side-tracked
• Some people answering all the
time
• Pitching at a level where all
children understand
Difficulties for students in answering questions
• don’t know the answer
• worried about ridicule
• don’t want to appear to know it
all
• dominant students get to
answer first
• fear of being put on the spot
• haven’t been paying attention
higher order thinking
depends on…
high levels of interaction
depends on…
safety to discuss
depends on…
respect for other people’s ideas
Asking better questions
How to ask better questions?
How to ask better
questions that raise the
challenge and require
students to think
Strategies for teachers
Questioning Jigsaw
• Blooms taxonomy (reading 1:pp4/5)
yellow
• Spot the difference (reading 2:pp6/7/8)
pink
• Ideas for questioning (reading 3 p9)
blue
• Using questions effectively (reading 4 p10) green
Questioning Jigsaw Stage1
•
Read your page picking out the main points it is
making you want to share with other people
•
Focus at this point on what is being said not
what you think of what is being said.
•
Don’t use the yellow sticky to make notes – write
on the handout underlining or making notes in
the margin
Questioning jigsaw stage 2
• Share your main points with each other in the
your colored group.
• Agree on the same three points that you will
share about what the page is saying.
• Write these three points on the colored post-it.
Questioning Jigsaw Stage 3
• Get up, take your handout and your coloured post-it
with you and form ‘rainbow groups’ of four with one
person with each of four colours on post-it in the group
• Take turns to talk about what the reading your group
focused on using the three main points on your
coloured sticky to help you.
• Then venture any opinions that you and/or your group
had about the information in your reading
Cut back on ‘guess-what I am thinking’
Reproductive Questions
Teacher:
Remember that big word we used last time to
describe how plants make food…..it begins with a
‘p’?.............photo………? photosssss…..?
Student:
Photosynthesis!!!!
Teacher:
Well done, James!!!
Keep some general ‘hot’ questions in your desk drawer
•
What do you think?
•
Why do you think that?
•
How do you know?
•
Do you have a reason?
•
Can you be sure?
•
Is there another way?
•
What do you think happens next?
Use probing questions to search for more
information
Probes are precise questions designed to unpick a student’s train of thought and
encourage them to explore it more deeply.
•
Can you explain what you mean by….?
•
Can you show me what you mean by…?
•
Can you tell me more about….?
•
Are you sure?
•
Why do you think that?
•
Are you saying that….?
•
What is the evidence for that?
•
How do you know?
•
How did you work that out?
•
Can you give an example of….?
•
Can you explain why….?
Use prompting questions to give hints
These give hints or suggestions about what strategies students might
try to solve a problem or come up with an answer for themselves.
• Would…help?
• You could try…
• Have you compared your idea with…?
• What about…?
• Why not…?
• Have you tried…?
Plan fewer and better subject specific questions
in advance
• Plan only a few key questions.
• Decide on the level, order and
timing of questions.
• Consider embedding key questions
at the start of a lesson, or
• Structure and sequence questions
from easy to more difficult.
• Have some standard follow-up
questions to prompt and probe.
Start with simple questions and progress to more
challenging ones
• Remembering: can take in information and recall it when needed
• Understanding: can give basic meaning to information
• Applying: can use a learned skill in a new situation
• Analyzing: can break information into parts and relate it to the whole
• Creating: can combine existing elements to create something new
• Evaluating: can make an objective judgement about the value of
something based on a recognized standard
Five key strategies to ask better subject specific
questions
1. Provide a range of answers.
2. Turn the question into a true or false statement .
3. Don’t ask the question – give the answer and ask
why it is correct.
4. Don’t focus on the answer, focus on how to work it
out.
5. Ask questions that explore opposites, differences,
categories and exceptions .
1. Provide a range of answers
This involves asking a
question and give a
range of possible
answers which include
definite yes answers,
definite no answers
and some ambiguous
answers.
1. Provide a range of answers
What can we do to preserve the ozone layer?
1. Reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and factories
2. Reduce the greenhouse effect
3. Stop the cutting down on forests
4. Limit the number of cars that can be used when the ozone level gets high
5. Properly dispose of air-conditioners and fridges
The correct answer is 5- because it is a question about the ozone layer not
global warming.
Dylan Wiliam (2006)
1. Provide a range of answers
What do we need for life?
• water, telephones, clothing, cars, shelter, food
Which of these are alive and which are dead?
• trees, clouds, cats, water, snakes, grass
2. Turn the question into a true or false
statement
Agree or disagree?...
• no food is unhealthy
• this picture shows a Viking
• money brings you happiness
• multiples of 3 are always odd numbers
• drugs in sport are morally wrong
• the moon is a source of light
• shylock was a victim not a villain
3. Don’t ask the question – give the answer
and ask why it’s correct
Instead of asking…
1. Is 7 a prime number?’
Ask…
1. Why is 7 a prime
number?’
2. Is this a complex
sentence?
2. Why is this a complex
sentence?
3. Can 7/9 be simplified?
3. Why can 7/9 not be
simplified?
4. What kind of film is
“Star Wars”?
4. Why is “Star Wars” a
science fiction film?
4. Don’t focus on the answer, focus on how
to work the answer out
Instead of…
Ask…
1. What is 2/3rds of 24?
1. How would you find 2/3rds of
24?
2. How do you know that
someone is your friend?
3. What questions would you
have to ask yourself to decide
if the Germans were
responsible for the first World
War?
2. What is friendship?
3. Were the Germans
responsible for the first
World War?
5. Ask questions that explore opposites,
differences, categories and exceptions
Original question…
1. What do we need to
make circuits work?
2. What makes a good
story opening?
3. Should young people
always obey their
parents?
4. What is a mammal?
Revised question…
1. Why does this circuit work
and this one does not?
2. Which of these two openings
makes you want to read on?
3. When would it be right for
young people not to obey
their parents?
4. What is the same and what is
different about mammals and
birds?
More questions that cause and reveal
thinking in maths
• How did you decide this
was the right answer?
• Which of these calculations
are right and which are
wrong?
• Why do these mistakes
happen?
• How can we avoid them?
• How could you make that
question harder or easier?
• Topic of insects
• Already done some work on insects
• Want to check/extend current
knowledge/understanding
• Want to make links to other areas of the
curriculum
• What is an insect?
• A camel is not an insect. Why not?
• Is a bird an insect?
• What sort of things does an insect have on it’s head?
• What do you think it’s like to be an insect?
• Did you know that a butterfly tastes with it’s feet? Can
you imagine what it would be like if we tasted with our
feet?
What if we could fly?
good points
bad points
interesting
points
Talk to students about different kinds of
questions
• You might use the terms “fat” and “thin” questions or
“hot” and “cold” questions.
• “Hot” questions or “higher order thinking” questions are
questions that make you think and help you to think.
• And thinking helps you to understand and get smarter.
• I’m going to ask you some hot questions today and
give you more time to answer them.
How to ask better questions
How to ask questions
better to give students
more support to help them
to think and to reveal their
understanding
Asking questions better
1. Wait time
2. No hands up
3. Think, pair and share
4. Show-me boards
5. Signals for understanding
6. Take the answer round the class
7. Minimal encouragers
Leave “wait” or “think” time
• More students are likely to offer
an answer.
• The frequency of answers from
less able students rises.
• Students give longer answers.
• Responses are usually more
thoughtful or creative.
• More students ask questions.
Two kinds of wait time
•
teacher asks a
question
•
student
responds
•
teacher reacts
to the student’s
response
No hands up
Think, pair and share
• Can be a good idea when wait time doesn’t work
• Can be informal: “Talk to your partner about it for a
minute.”’
• Can be formal: “Let’s think, pair and share that
now.”
• Snap your fingers and they know they must write
down their thought in complete silence for a
minute.
• Snap again and it’s pairing with partner voices,
then you can pick on any individual to share an
idea with the whole class.
Signals for understanding
1. traffic lights
2. thumbs
3. show-me-boards
Take the answer round the class
• This is about playing volleyball
rather than ping-pong
• Works best with open
questions but can also work
with closed
• When a student answers your
question, leave it on the other
side of the net and find what a
few others think before you
respond.
Respond with ‘minimal encouragers’
These suggest: “Please continue. I’m listening and I
understand.”
For example….
“Mm-hmm” “Tell me more” “Oh?”
“For instance?” “I see”
“Then?” “Yes really?”
“Right”
“And?”
“Go on” “So?” “I hear you” “Sure?”
“What would you say if you did know?”
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